A look at the media world through the eyes of veteran Canadian TV columnist Eric Kohanik.

Saturday, March 01, 2014

Enrico Colantoni is back in Remedy

ON SCREEN:
REMEDY
Global -- Mondays

Finding Middle Ground

Enrico Colantoni Straddles The Fence Between Comedy And Drama In "Remedy"

By Eric Kohanik

Enrico Colantoni admits he sometimes
feels out of place when it comes to his career.

“I am still a man without a home,”
the 51-year-old actor half-jokes inside his dressing-room trailer in
downtown Toronto. “I have kids in Los Angeles. I have parents in
Italy. But right now, there's nothing more rewarding than feeling
appreciated by the people that I was born into. I was born in Canada.
There's something huge about that. I don't think I would have done it
any differently.”

Born in Toronto, Colantoni graduated
from the Yale School of Drama in the U.S. and carved out a career in
American television, from such comedies as Hope & Gloria
and Just Shoot Me! to dramas including Veronica Mars andPerson of Interest. But it was his five-year stint back in
Canada, as tactical-police-squad sergeant Greg Parker on CTV's
Flashpoint, that added another twist.

“Parker was fantastic. He was
wonderful to play,” Colantoni recalls. “But after leaving that
show, all I yearned for was something a little lighter.”

Longing for stuff on the other side of
the fence isn't new for Colantoni. “I like exactly what I'm not
doing in the moment,” he concedes. “A day didn't go by on Just
Shoot Me! where I wouldn't go, 'I want to do something dramatic,
single camera.' The good thing is I always get what I ask for.”

Colantoni figures he has found a good
compromise in a new Global series called Remedy.
The show revolves around fictional Bethune General Hospital,
where the adventures of those interacting on the upper floors of the
hospital occasionally intersect with the misadventures that occur in
the basement of the building. Colantoni tops the ensemble as Dr.
Allen Conner, the chief of staff who spends most days on the upper
decks of Bethune General. At the opposite end is Frank Kanaskie
(Patrick McKenna), who works in the basement as the supervisor of
transport and housekeeping.

“There's a lot of an Upstairs,
Downstairs dynamic to this show,” Colantoni says. “That's the
tone of the show when those two worlds meet. Allen is constantly
battling two worlds. I think that's what's going to set it apart from
other medical dramas.”

The interactions often have comical
consequences, which appealed to Colantoni. “The biggest reason I
wanted to do it, from an acting perspective, is that there is comedy
in it,” he explains. “It really is a hybrid. It's not the comedy
of Just Shoot Me! It's not the drama of Flashpoint.
It's right in the middle.

“There's an undertow to this show
that makes me laugh. It's either built in with the dynamic of the
relationship of the family members or, sometimes, it's just blatant
comedy. That's what intrigued me.” Colantoni is also tackling
other chores on Remedy; he is directing the sixth episode.

“To be able to see something from
that perspective, it turns the light bulb back on,” Colantoni says.
“Doors that were closed to me at one time are now open for me on
this show. That just makes me feel like I'm welcome, that my opinions
have value, that I have a stake in it. It's the pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow.

“That's why I came back to Canada.
I've gotten to play historic figures, heroic figures and, now, I'm
allowed to direct an episode of a television show in its first season
– in its first season! – which is unheard of and generous
beyond everything I've ever experienced. That's what I love about
being home.

“I'm Canadian again. I'm here. I want
to stay,” Colantoni says, and then adds with a smile, “unless
somebody wants me back in the States.”